Species details: Click on each item to see an explanation of that item (Note: opens a new window)

Small tree. Branches with or without large lenticels. Leaves opposite, narrowly obovate, thickly leathery both when fresh and dry, base cuneate; apex obtuse. Calyx clasping the corolla and shed with it, barrel-shaped to cylindric; 2.5-4 times as long as the lobes. Corolla pale yellow; lobes broadly obcordate. Fruit composed of two separate mericarps, one only often developing; obliquely subspherical. Seeds with an orange aril.

thouarsii: named after Louis-Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars (1758-1831), who was exiled to Madagascar after the French Revolution where he became a botanist and an avid collector of plants, particularly orchids.